Roger Goodell is getting a new nameplate with the word "commissioner" preceding
his name and maybe new office space on Park Avenue, as he officially becomes the
National Football League's new top executive replacing Paul Tagliabue. Goodell
probably can thank Bryant Gumbel for laying out what his top priority should be:
getting the owners to sign off on the recently negotiated labor agreement.
But Goodell has a long way to go before he gets into field goal range. Getting his
owners to work out, among themselves, a revenue-sharing plan that will satisfy the
high revenue producers — Dallas' Jerry Jones, Washington's Daniel Snyder, New
England's Robert Kraft, Philadelphia's Jeffrey Lurie, and Houston's Robert McNair,
to name a few — as well as the small market operators, like Buffalo's Ralph Wilson
and Cincinnati's Mike Brown, has become a problem.
Goodell probably won't have to worry that much about the National Football League
Players Association pulling out of the accord because it was the executive
director of the NFLPA, Gene Upshaw, who implored the owners to come up with a
proposal that the players could accept well before the end of the current
collective bargaining agreement.
During an episode of his HBO broadcast, "Real Sports," Gumbel quipped:
"Before he cleans out his office have Paul Tagliabue show you [Goodell] where he
keeps Gene Upshaw's leash. By making the docile head of the players union his
personal pet, your predecessor has kept the peace without giving players the kind
of guarantees other pros take for granted. Try to make sure no one competent ever
replaces Upshaw on your watch."
The veteran newsman publicly aired what former players, agents, and officials from
other pro sports players unions have said in private for many years. Under
Upshaw's watch, the NFL players union folded after 24 days during a strike against
the owners in 1987. Players like Dave Jennnings, who went through the 1982 and
1987 strikes, have long questioned the effectiveness of the union leadership.
Instead of negotiating deals at the bargaining table, the NFL players union spent
years in acrimonious litigation with the owners.
Jennings, who was a New York Jet punter at the time, thought the showdown with the
owners was mostly worth it.
"The players were not that interested in a long-term strike, they were looking at
the next paycheck," Jennings said. "It's tough to get players to strike and stay
together. In 1987, it was a shorter strike and we had the court cases working and
eventually it worked out for us. We got nothing from the 1987 strike, we didn't
get anything directly, but indirectly we got free agency and you see what
happened. Free agency works."
It took pressure from a Minneapolis Federal Judge, David Doty, to end more than
two decades of labor strife in 1993. That seven-year agreement guaranteed more
than $1 billion in pension, health, and post-career benefits for current and
retired players. But the agreement also capped owners' spending on players and,
more importantly for an owner, established that players cut from a roster and
given severance would no longer be guaranteed the full monetary value of their
contract, unlike players in Major League Baseball, the NBA, and NHL. Upshaw and
Tagliabue formed some sort of bond during that period and it seemed Upshaw was
more interested in maintaining the owners' financial health than that of his own
constituency.
That connection is one of the main reasons many agents won't represent NFL
players.It has also left many union officials in other professional sports leagues
shaking their heads, wondering just what Upshaw and the players are thinking when
it comes to collective bargaining agreements.
Goodell has another problem on his hands: Gumbel was hired in April as the NFL
Network's lead play-by-play announcer. It's highly unusual, if not unheard of, for
an announcer to criticize the very league he's been employed by the way Gumbel
has. Of course, Gumbel — in his own way — has inadvertently given the league's
growing network invaluable publicity, which will only help bring attention to the
NFL Network. But it's unlikely that Goodell or anyone else from the network would
fire Gumbel and risk validating his critical remarks about Upshaw.
Goodell's primary dilemma lies in satisfying the needs of his 32 owners, no easy
task. Also, Goodell's political skills may be tested if Congress doesn't like how
the revenue sharing issue is settled. In April, the representative for New York's
Buffalo district, Congressman Brian Higgins, declared he would ask the House
Government Reform Committee to set up a hearing on the NFL's new labor deal and
what impact it would have on small market clubs. So far that hasn't happened, but
the new labor deal is still a work in progress.
Goodell also will be battling some of the biggest cable TV providers, including
Time Warner and Cablevision, in the league's bid to get the NFL Network on those
cable systems' basic expanded tier no later than Thanksgiving, when the first of
eight regular season games will air on the channel. There are stadium issues that
need to be settled one way or another in San Diego, San Francisco, and
Minneapolis.
The future of the New Orleans Saints franchise is still up in the air as that
market struggles to recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Goodell may
also be faced with the prospect of allowing the Baltimore Ravens' ownership to
expand its market territory, merging Batimore-Washington into one television
market instead of two, in an effort to increase local revenue. Major League
Baseball has, in effect, combined the same market for the Orioles and Nationals
for cable TV purposes so it is possible the NFL may do the same.
Goodell probably will pick up where Tagliabue left off in his ongoing effort to
re-enter the profitable Los Angeles market, which has been without NFL football
since 1994. Goodell will face the same problems that dogged Tagliabue: Will the
league play in L.A. or in Anaheim? And who will pay for the stadium where they
play?
At some point, Goodell will likely try to play catch up with the NBA, taking a
crack at the China market. The NBA — thanks to Yao Ming and Lebron James — is the
most popular North American sport in China (MLB and the NHL are also trying to
make inroads in the expanding Chinese marketplace). Goodell cannot overlook Canada
either in considering international expansion, particularly with a wide-open
market in Toronto. There are even promoters in Mexico who are eager to do business
with the NFL: One group of Monterey investors have expressed interest in building
an NFL stadium on the Texas-Mexico border about an hour north of Monterrey. That
may be unrealistic, but the NFL has been marketing its product in Mexico.
But none of this can take place until Goodell can convince 32 franchise owners to
agree to a revenue-sharing plan that pleases both the big and not-so-big market
guys. And that will be Goodell's most difficult task.
